Le Meridien Brazzaville

On arrival, we were locked in the baggage claim area. Good fun at 120 degrees.

Pleasantly surprised and more open than other countries in Central Africa. Strange to see Kinshasa just across the river. Had to keep explaining I was not French (and no my french friends, I still have my wonderful American accent). Got a tour in the dark t...

6th - First impressions of the Congo's scenery is savannah on rolling hills with little villages in between. We did a lot of sand matting in the morning as the roads are pretty hopeless, so we had to get up at 6am to ensure we could cover a decent distance today. Around 9am we hit tarmac then saw a bridge, so we all had a bath/shower in the rive...

So Panashe and Dawn arrived yesterday afternoon. I had spent the last 2 days wishing they would arrive sooner, then when the two little *******s arrived, the first thing they said was "Denise, what happened? You are fat!!!". Bloody idiots. No, hey Denise, how goes it sister, long time no see... Bloody *******s.. I have not put on that much weigh...

So this is now my second night in Kinshasa, staying at my dads house. Wow!!! Where to start...? OK, so when I landed we had to wait ages at the airport because we were going to give a ride to an old colleague of my dads. We waited almost an hour and a half only to find out that her bags had been lost. Now if I was her, Id forget about it. The le...

Congo-Brazzaville-on the banks of the river with the same name,the mighty Congo river-is clean and organized.But hotels are expensive in Brazzaville, and my choice, the Hippo-camp is fully booked, so I end up in a small, but modern place, the Bougainvilliers, its gonna be the most expenive accomodation on the whole journey, at around 50 euros. I...

Before I write about today, I wanted to recount an interesting conversation I had on the way in from the airport which I forgot to include in my first post. Usually on the drive in from the airport, I ask about local conditions, potential security issues, specific issues that are on people's minds and so forth. Kinshasa is calm I was told, there...

I didn't leave the hotel today, but had visitors morning and afternoon. The Mukendis arrived first, about 9:30; I met them in the lobby. It was a pleasure to meet Mrs. Mukendi and to chat with them both about their history in the Church of God, especially the recent history. They have remained faithful to their beliefs, leaving WCG when it aband...

Anoth** trip through francophone Africa and Europe has begun. This time I'll be entirely in sub-equatorial Africa: the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo - RDC in French), Burundi, Rwanda, transiting through Nairobi twice, and then on to France. If all goes as planned, time out of the States: 26 days. I left Cincinnati last night for Paris: D...

Today I slept in a bit since I hadn't slept much during my 24-hour travel day. The last part of the morning I spent the morning getting organized for the next few days and catching up on e-mail. I was able to connect my laptop by cable in the Business Center, but the speed was so slow I gave up after downloading my messages. I'd try back later. ...

Photo: White-throated Blue Swallows at Bombo-Lumene. On the way out of town on Saturday, we were twice forced off the road by high-speed convoys rushing Very Important People to their very important meetings. We could tell how important they were by the deluxe 4x4s, the tinted windows, the motorcycle outriders, and the accompanying pickups bris...